JKM190 History of Computer and Video Games
Jaroslav Švelch, Ph.D.
Winter 2022/2023
Assignments (more details below):
1) Weekly assignments – For most sessions, you are required to fulfil a short weekly
assignment: either short research work or a reflection on playing selected game(s). These
have to be posted to the respective Discord channel by Tuesday before the class at
23:59.
2) Mid-term assignment – Write a biographical note (750-1,500 words) about a game
industry luminary of your choice (who was active in video game culture before 2001). It
has to include a solid list of sources. Deadline: Nov 23, 23:59. More information below.
3) Final essay (1,500-2,500) words, which sums up an existing book of game history
research and/or performs original game history research based on historical sources.
Deadlines: January 9 and January 30 – you can pick one of these based on your
schedules and on when you need the credits. More information below.
All assignments must be delivered in English.
Remote options
The class is primarily taught in-person. Students who cannot attend the sessions for serious
reasons will have access to slides and readings. Such students are required to hand in all weekly
assignments just like in-person students.
Grading criteria:
Weekly assignments: 25%
Mid-term assignment: 25%
Final essay: 50%
Grading scale:
A: 91-100, B: 81-90, C: 71-80, D: 61-70, E: 51-60, Fail: <51
Link to slides: you can find them HERE.
Program:
Oct 5
Introduction
Oct 12
Methods and challenges of game historiography and game preservation
Recommended reading:
Hedstrom, Margaret L., Christopher A. Lee, Judith S. Olson, and Clifford A. Lampe. 2006. “‘The
Old Version Flickers More’: Digital Preservation from the User’s Perspective.” The American
Archivist 69 (1): 159–87.
Newman, James. 2012. Best before: Videogames, Supersession and Obsolescence. Milton Park,
Abingdon; New York: Routledge.
Suominen, Jaakko. 2016. “How to Present the History of Digital Games: Enthusiast,
Emancipatory, Genealogical, and Pathological Approaches.” Games and Culture 12 (6): 544–62.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412016653341.
Swalwell, Melanie. 2017. “Moving on from the Original Experience : Philosophies of
Preservation and Dis/Play in Game History.” In Fans and Videogames: Histories, Fandom,
Archives, edited by Melanie Swalwell, Helen Stuckey, and Angela Ndalianis, 213–33. Routledge
Advances in Game Studies 9. New York: Routledge.
Oct 19
History of non-digital games
Weekly compulsory assignment: Pick a non-digital game (board game, card games, tabletop
role-playing, sport, etc.) of your choice and research its history online. It must be a game that
was released or dates back before 2001. Write a few sentences about the history of that game
and include links to your sources.
Recommended reading:
Huhtamo, Erkki. 2005. “Slots of Fun, Slots of Trouble: An Archaeology of Arcade Gaming.” In
Handbook of Computer Game Studies, edited by Joost Raessens and Jeffrey H. Goldstein, 3–22.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Peterson, Jon. 2013. Playing at the world: a history of simulating wars, people and fantastic
adventures ; from chess to role-playing games. San Diego: Unreason Press.
Oct 26
The origins of games in research and university settings
Weekly compulsory assignment: Try to find information about what was the first computer
game or the first video game. You are likely to find more than one answer, but please pick one.
Write up to 200 words about the game and try to justify why it was the first. Include links to the
source(s) you have used. There is not only one “correct” answer: the point is to compare our
findings.
Monnens, Devin. 2014. “‘I Commenced an Examination of a Game Called Tit-Tat-To’: Charles
Babbage and the ‘First’ Computer Game.” http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digitallibrary/paper_436.pdf.
Nov 2
Arcade and early console industries and designs
Weekly compulsory assignment from previous week (DUE AFTER THE VISIT TO ARCADE
MUSEUM): Write a short reflection (250-500 words) of the material aspects, the look and the
feel of historical gaming hardware and a game you played on it.
Recommended reading:
Guins, Raiford. 2014. Game after: A Cultural Study of Video Game Afterlife. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Guins, Raiford. 2020. Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines.
Cultural Histories of Design. London ; New York: Bloomsbury Visual Arts. (Available online at
FSV throught ProQuest.)
Kocurek, Carly A. 2015. Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game
Arcade. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Montfort, Nick, and Ian Bogost. 2009. Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
McDivitt, Anne Ladyem. 2020. Hot Tubs and Pac-Man: Gender and the Early Video Game
Industry in the United States (1950s–1980s). De Gruyter Oldenbourg.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110668575.
Nov 9 NO CLASS
Instead of the class: watch Black Mirror: Bandersnatch OR High Score (Episode 6, optionally
other episodes) on Netflix OR From Bedrooms to Billions (HERE). We will discuss these during
the Nov 23 session.
Nov 16 NO CLASS
Nov 23
Homebrew and “bedroom” programming; 1980s British surrealism and French
satire; the origins of “indie” games
Compulsory games: one of the following – Manic Miner (follow the link; controls O=left,
P=right, SPACE=jump) or Boulder Dash (follow the link; control by cursor keys). Write a short
reflection of your playing experience.
Recommended reading:
Eyles, Mark. 2016. “A First-Hand Account of Quicksilva and Its Part in the Birth of the UK
Games Industry, 1981–1982.” Edited by Alex Wade. Cogent Arts & Humanities 3 (1): 1190441.
https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2016.1190441.
Juul, Jesper. 2019. Handmade Pixels: Independent Video Games and the Quest for
Authenticity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (Only in the library).
McLean, Tom. 2016. Electronic Dreams: How 1980s Britain Learned to Love the Computer.
Bloomsbury Sigma 10. London: Bloomsbury Sigma.
Donovan, Tristan. 2010. Replay: The History of Video Games. East Sussex, England: Yellow
Ant.
Nov 30
Authorship and labor in the video game industry (plus discussion of the mid-term
assignment)
Mid-term compulsory assignment: Write a biographical note (750-1,250 words) about a game
industry luminary of your choice. It has to include a solid list of sources.
Nooney, Laine. 2013. “A Pedestal, A Table, A Love Letter: Archaeologies of Gender in
Videogame History.” Game Studies 13 (2). http://gamestudies.org/1302/articles/nooney.
Nooney, Laine. 2020. “The Uncredited: Work, Women, and the Making of the U.S. Computer
Game Industry.” Feminist Media Histories 6 (1): 119–46.
https://doi.org/10.1525/fmh.2020.6.1.119.
Švelch, Jan. 2021. “Developer Credit: Para-Industrial Hierarchies of In-Game Credit Attribution
in the Video Game Industry.” Games and Culture (Online First).
https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120211034408 (the Locating Game Authorship section).
Dec 7
A history of video game engines and spaces
Compulsory games: All of the following: Pac-Man (1980, arcade emulation, press “1” to insert a
virtual coin and ENTER to start), 3-Demon (1983, DOS emulation, press 1-9 to start the game
on a given difficulty level), Max Mix 2 (1990, DOS emulation*). Play the three games, which all
derive from the very similar base mechanics, which first appeared in Pac-Man. In a few
sentences, compare your experience playing these games, focusing especially in how the
different visual perspective on the game space (2D, first-person 3D, and isometric 3D) changes
the experience and/or allows for different game elements or mechanics.
Optional game: Catacomb 3-D (1991, DOS emulation). A predecessor to iD Software’s
Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and the whole genre of first-person shooters.
*To run Mad Mix 2, pick MADMIX.EXE option in the “Game executable” selection. In the main
menu, I recommend redefining keys by choosing “4” (redefinar teclado). Then choose your keys
for the following: Derecha = right/up (northeast), Izquierda = left/down (southwest), Subir =
up/left (northwest), Bajar = down/right (southeast), Disparo = jump). The character moves
diagonally, so choose the keys accordingly.
Recommended reading:
Stuckey, Helen. 2017. “The Curious World of The Hobbit: An Early Example of a Dynamic
Gameworld.” Well Played Journal 6 (2): 90–118. (See link below for the whole journal issue)
Gazzard, Alison. 2016. Now the Chips Are down: The BBC Micro. Platform Studies. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press.
Dec 14
Activist and political games; Computer games in Czechoslovakia and the Czech
Republic
Compulsory games: The Adventures of Indiana Jones in Wenceslas Square in Prague on
January 16, 1989, playable in English HERE or in Czech HERE. You can find background
information and instructions for the game when click the question mark icon in the top right.
You don’t have to finish the game, but try figuring out a couple of puzzles. For the Discord
channel, write about three sentences about your experience playing the game. Think about how
the representations of the protagonists and antagonists relate to the fact that this is an activist
game.
Recommended reading:
Shelby, Renee. 2019. “‘I Incite This Meeting to Rebellion.’” ROMchip 1 (1).
https://romchip.org/index.php/romchip-journal/article/view/46.
Garda, Maria B. 2020. “Microcomputing Revolution in the Polish People’s Republic in the
1980s.” In New Media behind the Iron Curtain: Cultural History of Video, Microcomputers
and Satellite Television in Communist Poland, edited by Piotr Sitarski, Maria B Garda, and
Krzysztof Jajko, 111–70. Łódź; Kraków: Łódź University Press : Jagiellonian University Press.
Švelch, Jaroslav. 2018. Gaming the Iron Curtain: How Teenagers and Amateurs in Communist
Czechoslovakia Claimed the Medium of Computer Games. Game Histories. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press (Chapter 7).
Švelch, Jaroslav, and Martin Kouba. 2020. “Indiana Jones Revisits Wenceslas Square:
Converting 1980s Czechoslovak Activist Games for Exhibition and Education.” ROMchip: A
Journal of Game Histories 2 (2). https://romchip.org/index.php/romchipjournal/article/view/115.
Dec 21
Video game discourses, representing video game history in other media
Weekly compulsory assignment: Download the issue of Crash (2/1984) and quickly go through
it to get the feel for the layout and structure of the magazine. Pick one of the reviews (pp. 10-18,
25-26, 37-41) and read it. Do you find anything peculiar about how people wrote game reviews?
How has writing about games changed between 1984 and today?
Recommended reading:
Kirkpatrick, Graeme. 2012. “Constitutive Tensions of Gaming’s Field: UK Gaming Magazines
and the Formation of Gaming Culture 1981-1995.” Game Studies 12 (1).
http://gamestudies.org/1201/articles/kirkpatrick.
Kirkpatrick, G. 2016. “How Gaming Became Sexist: A Study of UK Gaming Magazines 19811995.” Media, Culture & Society, April. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443716646177.
Švelch, Jaroslav. 2018. Gaming the Iron Curtain: How Teenagers and Amateurs in Communist
Czechoslovakia Claimed the Medium of Computer Games. Game Histories. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press (Chapter 4).
Additional resources:
Check out Aaron A. Reed’s series 50 Years of Text Games.
Follow CRT Pixels on Twitter.
Follow DOSNostalgic on Twitter.
ASSIGNMENT DETAILS:
Assignment 1:
DEADLINE: At the top of this document
Write a biographical note (750-1,500 words) about a game industry/game production luminary
of your choice (who was active in video game culture before 2001).
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Pick a person who was active as a game designer, game programmer, game artist or
musician, gaming hardware engineer, game industry professional, game journalist,
prominent competitive player etc. before 2001. It doesn’t matter if they are still active
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today, but they must have been active before 2001. You can also write about a
board/non-digital game-related person if you prefer so.
If you’re at a loss regarding who to write about, you may look into the book Replay by
Tristan Donovan, which is available in the literature package in the SIS. Some obvious
tips: Sid Meier (the designer of Civilization), Will Wright (the designer of Sim City and
The Sims), Roberta Williams (the designer of the King’s Quest series), Michel Ancel (the
designer of Rayman and a major figure in Ubisoft).
Gather relevant sources
o Are they covered by secondary literature? To find it, try to search for their name
in Google Scholar.
o Has that person written an autobiography or any books of their own?
o Are there online interviews with them (text or video)?
o The number of sources will vary from case to case. If this a relatively low-profile
person, try to bring in at least 5 sources. If they are famous, limit yourself to 10
most relevant sources.
Write up a short biography of that person.
o Mention their background if possible – country, social background, education,
age etc. If this information is unavailable, mention that it is unavailable.
o Highlight their unique contributions to the medium of video games while
focusing mainly on those contributions that took place before 2001. (You can
mention later contributions, too, but they should not take up the majority of the
text.)
o Reflect on the availability of sources (see the list above).
If available, set your spellchecking to English to avoid spelling errors. Please use black
text on a white background and a standard font.
Post the assignment as a Word file into the respective channel on Discord by the
deadline.
o The name of the file must be:
YourLastName_SubjectFirstNameLastName.DOCX, like
Švelch_SidMeier.docx. ODT, DOC, and RTF formats are also allowed.
Final essay:
DEADLINE: At the top of this document
The essay is to be submitted by one of the deadlines. Grading can take up to 10 days since
receipt. The essay (1,500-2,500) (a) sums up an existing book of game history research or (b)
performs original game history research based on historical sources. In both cases, you have to
provide references (including in-line references) to all material that you draw from or cite,
following one of the standard citation styles (Chicago, APA, ISO 690, Harvard, etc.) If you are
referring to a specific section or page of a book, include page number(s) in the reference. Even if
you are writing a summary of a book, use in-line references when referring to specific parts of
the text or when using direct quotes.
Please double check the spelling and correctness of all names and game titles that you are
referring to. For example, there is a big difference between Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros.
a) Summary of existing research
This is the more straightforward option. You can pick any of the following books to sum up
(most of these will be available in the ZIP file available in the SIS; some are ePub files that can
be read on ebook readers or with software such as this):
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Any of the single-author monograph books (i.e. excluding articles and “collected”
books that contain several chapters written by individual authors) in Recommended
readings above, with the exception of Donovan’s Replay (because it is too long and too
broad in scope).
Any available book from the MIT Press Platform studies series.
Any available book from the Michigan University Press Landmark Video Games series.
Any available book from the Bloomsbury Influential Video Game Designers series.
Selected books from the Boss Fight Books series: Jagged Alliance 2, Chrono Trigger.
If you want to work with a different book, you need to check with me first.
While writing, please pay attention to the following:
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How is the book structured?
What kinds of sources and methods are the authors using?
What is the specific focus of the work?
Does it comment on the history of games as a medium or the medium itself? If so, how?
Can you find connections to the topics we discussed in class? If so, which ones, and how
does it connect?
Play or at least watch the gameplay of at least some of the titles discussed in the work. Is
your perspective on those games different from or similar to how the authors are
representing them?
If you want to add your own perspective on the topic, please do! I will be happy to read it.
b) Original historical research
This is the more ambitious option. In this case, you will be working with historical material,
such as (1) archived magazines, (2) personal accounts or oral histories, and (3) games
themselves. There always needs to be one more historical source in addition to the games
themselves. The topic needs to be discussed with me and has to focus on developments
before 2001. You will still need to read up some relevant literature on your topic and I can help
you find it.
Examples of valid topics:
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Reception of selected French games of the 1990s in French gaming press
Production and reception of Ant Attack (Quicksilva 1983)
The specific structure depends on the particular topic.
Delivering the essay
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If available, set your spellchecking to English to avoid spelling errors. Please use black
text on a white background and a standard font.
Post the assignment as a Word file into the respective channel on Discord by the
deadline.
o The name of the file must be: YourName_SubjectName.DOCX, like
JaroslavŠvelch_ChronoTrigger.docx. ODT, DOC, and RTF formats are also
allowed.
Plagiarism and other instances of academic dishonesty are strongly discouraged
and may result in failing the class!